Good morning, CIOs. Or should we say “strategic partners”? As cloud, data and digital capabilities spread throughout the enterprise, the role technology leaders play is expanding rapidly, from providing back-office support for internal lines of business, to driving innovation, competitive differentiation and revenue growth. As CIO Journal reports, that shift is bringing senior IT managers closer than ever to customers and giving CIOs a seat at the table on executive committees or boards.

The sky's the limit.Delta Air Lines Inc. this year promoted its CIO, Rahul Samant, to executive vice president, reporting directly to its chief executive officer. In doing so, it cited the growing importance of IT to the airline’s success. A recent Korn/Ferry International survey found that 67% of 199 corporate technology chiefs sit on their company’s executive committee, up from 55% last year.

Driving service innovation.Albertsons Cos. CIO Anuj Dhanda, who has spent the past year updating and moving many of the supermarket operator’s IT systems to the cloud, is testing a tool that allows customers to pull up to one of its gas stations and have sensors identify their vehicles, provide online payment and receipts, and calculate customer loyalty rewards: “This is the best time to be a CIO,” he says.

Intel CEO Krzanich resigns over relationship with employee. Intel Corp. has a non-fraternization policy that prohibits managers from having sexual or romantic relationships with employees who report directly or indirectly to them, a spokesman for the company tells the WSJ's Austen Hufford and Aisha Al-Muslim report. The board said Chief Financial Officer Robert Swan would become interim CEO, effective immediately.

Resignation forces Intel to face future.Questions such as the company’s future leadership in chip-making processes and the threat of large customers such as Apple Inc. and Google making more chips in house are looming over Intel, says the WSJ's Dan Gallagher.

States can require online retailers to collect sales taxes. By a 5-to-4 vote, the Supreme Court closed a loophole that helped fuel the early growth of internet sales, overruling a half-century of its own precedents that forbid states from requiring merchants to collect sales tax unless those sellers maintain a “physical presence” within the state’s borders. The WSJ has more on the historic ruling.

Poised to hit small businesses hard. The new decision means that millions of small businesses may now need to collect and remit sales taxes in the 45 states that have them, the WSJ's Laura Stevens says. That could be an expensive and time-consuming task, especially if new rules differ between states.

Amazon’s face-scanning surveillance software contrasts with its privacy stance. Facial-recognition technology enables governments and private enterprise to track citizens anywhere there is a camera, even if they’re not carrying any devices. It’s a stark example of a technology that is being deployed faster than society and the law can adopt new norms and rules, writes WSJ Tech Columnist Christopher Mims.

Google engineers resist. Before Google earlier this month announced it would not renew a Pentagon Drone AI project, a group of "influential software engineers in Google’s cloud division" refused to work on a security feature considered crucial for winning more military contracts. Bloomberg looks at the "growing resistance among employees" to working on projects with military connections.

Where is Apple's wireless charger? Apple Inc. is facing technical challenges in its pursuit of wireless charging mat for iPhones, Bloomberg reports.

For the Silicon Valley hockey fan. Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun Microsystems has put his Palo Alto, Calif. house on the market, the Journal's Katy McLaughlin reports. For $10 million, the buyer gets a 28,000-square-foot, four-level main house complete with climbing wall and hockey rink.

A Spotify for videogames? The videogame industry has been slow to embrace cloud services, citing inadequate internet connections on the consumers' side. But that attitude is changing, fueled in part by the promise of next-generation, 5G wireless technology, the Journal's Takashi Mochizuki reports.

Every week, CIO Journal offers a glimpse into the mind of the CEO, whose view of technology is shaped by stories in management journals, general interest magazines and, of course, in-flight publications.

For crying out loud. Napping and mindfulness have evolved into the signature practices of the enlightened organization. Could acceptance of public crying be next? "The message from the top needs to be that no one will lose credibility or be seen as less competent if they cry. Rather, they will be viewed as being authentic,” Jeneva Patterson, senior faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership in Brussels, Belgium, writes in Harvard Business Review. Caught crying by peers? Ms. Patterson suggests a pivot: "Say something like, ‘As you can see I have strong emotions about this topic because of how much I value our work.’” True leaders own their tears.

Time to stop big tech from getting bigger? Despite their market power, today’s internet giants “don’t fit the stereotype of rapacious monopolists that raise prices and squeeze investment,” Martin Giles writes in Technology Review. But with tech barons positioned to dominate artificial intelligence thanks to their “vast data reserves," Mr. Giles suggests that now is the time to consider new measures. Among the ideas: A mandate that calls upon companies to share their data--"random and stripped of all personal identifiers”--when they pass a certain level of market share.

Old-school gaming. Nintendo Co., the Japanese gaming company that gave the world Mario and Zelda, is 130-years-old. And to the joy of some (gamers) and the frustration of others (analysts), the company retains an old school vibe when it comes to creating product, as Bloomberg Businessweek's Felix Gillette explains: "The expectation is that new hires will learn the craft from senior producers and spend the rest of their careers at Nintendo, continuously honing their command." This dedication to craft, a setup Businessweek compares to surrounding Kyoto's "rich, artisanal culture," has produced gameplay and devices that could come from no where else. Critics say the insularity has prevented the company from capitalizing on smartphone gaming. But don't accuse Nintendo's old school approach with being outdated. Says Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's most prominent creator: "What you need are fresh ideas. You need young people with interesting takes.”